Shut the Door: A Novel

by Amanda Marquit

In one of the most impressive debut novels ever written by a teenager, Shut the Door, says the New York Post, is "a raw and disturbing portrayal of a suburban family."
In a household spiraling out of control, Lilliana and Vivian are two teenage sisters struggling to carve out their identities as young adults, taking risks and undergoing disturbing transformations that go unchallenged by their emotionally absent parents. Beatrice and Harry's marriage is disintegrating, and it no longer provides the safe harbor their daughters so desperately need. As the girls test boundaries and push limits, their silent cries for help are lost within the apathy that has crept into their family life. Harry's prolonged absence on a business trip finally provides the impetus to reevaluate family roles and relationships―and the choices made are shocking. In the vein of American Beauty, this evocative family portrait reveals just what happens when our support system falls away and we become emotionally disconnected from the ones we love the most.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's sort of difficult for me to review this book since the author wrote it when she was 14-16 years old. That said, Marquit is a very good writer, and I did find the concept of the story interesting. It is basically told from 4 different perspectives: a crazy, devoted and needy wife; a husband trying to escape the monotony of his life and wife; and their two daughters, one who is a goody-two-shoes prude and the other a "troublemaker." However, as the story and the characters lives unravel, the girls' personlities change dramatically. I understand the author wanted to build suspense, but the books was pretty boring until the last 70 pages or so. I liked Vivian's character & the dad's character the best. It was an interesting book, but not one of the best I have ever read.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just didn't like this one at all. While I respect that the author began this book at age 14, I couldn't identify with any of the characters. The wife was so needy and idolized her husband, while not understanding what was going on under her own roof; the husband doesn't seem to care much about his wife, daughters, or his job; and the daughters... well, I suppose you could chalk their behavior up to rebellion.

[KJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Story about four family members. You read one chapter about each of the four people and the rest of the book is basically that same chapter repeated.

[Alyssa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Props to the author for writing this at 14.
However, you can tell it was written by a 14 year old. For the perspectives of Lilli and Vivian, this worked really well as it really felt like a teenage perspective and not forced. However, for Bea and Harry the perspective definitely felt forced and unrealistic. Besides that, I would have liked to see the completion of the character arcs. I did enjoy the gradual disintegration of them all, but then the story just stops. Towards the last 40-50 pages I felt like the characters had reached their peak disintegration and it felt so repetitive. I wanted to see some resolution. I wanted to see the conflict when Harry came home, when Lilli found out that Paul liked Vivian, did Bea ever clean up the kitchen and rotting food, the reaction when they found out how much Lilli was cutting and that Vivian was anorexic. There were so many things that never really got addressed besides the initial glossing over or resolved in the end. It was disappointing.

[Arrow Krynock · Rating 1 out of 5]

honestly, this book was shit. there’s no real ending it just kinda stops and it’s not something i would ever ready again. however fuck you to my mother who gave me this book to read when i was in 5th grade.

[Jennifer Sieminski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was super raw and really dug into the minds of people struggling. There was such a build up and I was super let down by the ending! So frustrating!!

[Vanessa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly, this book upset me a little. It's not very good. But that's not the part that upset me. What bothers me is that the only thing the publishing company had going for it with this novel was marketing the fact that a 14-year-old wrote it. And yeah, I'll give her some credit for 1) even attempting a novel, and 2) finishing a novel.

But, Christ, did any editor actually read this? Because, if they did, I'm pretty sure they would have seen numerous glaring problems, the biggest of which is a complete lack of character development. The four main characters are unrealistic extremes, complete cliches of an utterly dependent housewife, cheating husband away on business, emo self-mutilating daughter, and crazy-for-attention anorexic second daughter. They don't grow in any way, and their respective voices are essentially all the same - juvenile. This would be fine for the teenage daughters, but the parents? There's a reason the characters come off as so shallow, especially in scenes depicting sex and extreme psychological problems.

A 14-YEAR-OLD WROTE IT.

I've read some interviews magazines and newspapers have had with this young author. And, to be honest, it doesn't sound like she really put an ounce of research into anything. How could she? She was a child when she started writing this. This book obviously isn't based on any autobiographical experience since it's clear from how she writes about certain situations that she couldn't possibly know anything about it. But then why is this getting published at all? Do you really expect readers to believe that in the span of about two weeks, these family members' lives just fell apart? In excruciatingly repetitive dialogue?

In the end, I rushed through it to see what happened and discovered nothing really happened at all. Nothing resolved in any shape or form.

It's a shame. This girl could be a decent writer, if she had a decent editor who could steer her in the right direction. Maybe in time she'll mature a little in writing style. Overall, the entire thing was marketed on the author's age and shallow shock value.

[rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a teenager, I wasn't a critical reader. I was a voracious reader then to be sure, but I read primarily for the fun of it, to be scandalized by sex and violence and maybe once in a while for the rush of being scared.

I bought Shut the Door when it first came out in 2006, compelled by the dystopic suburban similarities to American Beauty and curious if a girl four years younger than me could pull such a thing off. An aspiring writer myself, churning out crap with dedication up through senior year of high school and then sharing that crap openly with friends for 'criticism' (i.e. praise and validation), I knew that if this girl could write something really good, I'd be jealous of her forever.

As it turns out, this is one of the first books I read that I could tell was not good. I could tell this even as a reader whose notions of good or bad depended on whether or not I liked the characters and whether or not people were doing it or getting killed frequently enough for my liking.

Part of me feels horrible saying this about the 14-16 year old that Marquit was then. But I'm committed to the belief that a person of that age cannot write an adult character convincingly. Hell, at 23 I probably can't either -- and I have responsibilities, obligations, semi-mature relationships.

What I'm trying to say: there is a wisdom that comes with age. A cliche to be sure, but one with a lot of truth. To produce insightful and lasting observations about life, you need to live. Marquit's adult characters come off as caricatures of adults she's seen in films. But what else can you expect? She was 14, it's not her fault.

Reading interviews now, I'm not surprised that she comes from an Upper East Side NYC family with connections the publishing industry. I only hope that having the work she created as a teenager hyped and published hasn't negatively impacted her creativity as an adult. Many precocious kids grow up to feel embarrassed by their adult pretensions, but hers are published for the whole country.

[Donna Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked "Shut the Door" by the 16 year old Amanda Marquit. She has amazing talent. She sets up a dysfunctional family who does not communicate with each oher ---- the mom (Beatrice), who adores her husband so much that she smothers him, her husband Harry, who has gone to Cleveland on a once in a lifetime business trip, who meets up with a hooker named Chloe and falls in love, daughter Lillian, the wild child who finally falls in love with Paul, and cuts his name on her arm (and he thinks she's too young for him), and daughter Vivian, who spends the whole book changing herself to be more like Lillian --- the book used total omniscience, so not a lot of stuff happens, but the thoughts are very universal, and I couldn't believe that those parts were written by such a young person. However, the dialogue parts were awful --- purposefully? not sure, but just awful, like hi, how are you, I'm okay, how are you? stuff that I used to put slashes through when I graded sophomore short stories. So if I would have edited the book, the dialogue would have been less, and so would the thoughts --- the book went on way too long, but the end was good, so I'm glad I finished it --- just too long in parts, lots of repetition (I Love Harry, I Love Paul, I hate myself being fat, I don't want to go home over and over and over)

[Alee Ramos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book but after reading it, I realized it's not really for everyone. It's basically a story about a family being told in the 4 member's perspective. There is Beatrice, the crazy devoted wife, Harry, the pretty lost and wife avoiding husband, Vivian, the innocent daughter, and Lily, the troublemaker of the family. Without writing spoilers, the gist of the story is the journey of the 2 daughters trying to find their identities as they continue to mature, making it sort of like a coming of age story for them. As for the parents, they're relationship has been very functional but it's now beginning to seem like a "just going through the motions" routine causing them to provide less care and love for their daughters. The book really begins to get exciting once you reach the end, which is why one must stick through reading. I enjoyed it because it sort of showed the possible problems that could be relevant in the life of a family in a way that isn't usually portrayed. As long as you're into drama, this book is definitely for you, but also be aware that there is some explicit content throughout.

[Britt Hanson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I decided I need to get better at actually adding comments about books I have read - not just for others, but for me.

Shut the Door was written be a teenager - started at age 14 and ended when she was 16. For someone that age to have written this book that covers so much more than just teen rebelliousness, it's amazing. She dives into the marriage relationship, and just why and how changes occur in people, and in the family dynamic in just a short amount of time. However, even though it it classified as YA Lit, I was shocked by the language and sexual nature of the book - and this is coming from someone who does not limit or sensor their book choice at all.

While I enjoyed this book for look into families and relationships - I just couldn't completely connect with the characters, and as I stated before, the sexual nature of the book was a bit appalling.

Still, kudos to Amanda Marquit to publishing a book at such a young age, that I'm sure will resonate with others. Just not so much with me.

[Stefanie Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Tree · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could have never written this book, especially at ages 14 to 16. I applaud the author's attempt at telling a story of a disfunctional family through all the member's eyes. She's amazingly perceptive in many ways.

Still, the book is a long, slow, soul killer. There's nothing the slightest bit upbeat about the whole story. And because of that, it's just not quite believable.

I think that once she outgrows this angst ridden part of her life, she'll be a great author.

[Misty Skaggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminded me to be thankful for bein' born dirt poor out in the backwoods. Suburbanites are FUCKED UP. It was beautifully crafted though, and that hits you even harder when you realize it was written by a sixteen year old. The way she captured a frustrated, empty, forty-something housewife was really pretty eerie. Beatrice filled me with this weird mixture of pity and flat out contempt and it was totally believable.

[Denay Dusnon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredibly boring at first, and the only parts of the book i wanted to read about were from the two teenage sisters. but as the book dragged along i became more intamate with the mother and the father, and thier stories bacame mor einteresting.
by the end of the book i was very intwined with the characters. Good book.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was amazed that this book was written by a 16 year old. It was interesting to take a look into a normal/disfunctional family...2 teenage sisters and their parents. They're a family that acts likes strangers. I liked it, but the ending could have been better.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfect portrait of an utterly dysfunctional family. The points of view of each crumbling character are all different, all insightful. I didn't get too close to anyone in the story, but maybe that's because I was already too close for comfort?

[Akia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, I think I understand more of the current teenage generation because of this book, however, I did not like the ending. I think this does address the issues of

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book. I loved her writing style.

[Hanna]

Found at Half-Price books. I haven't been brave enough to start it yet...

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wasn't poorly written, but it lacked substance. It was a typical coming of age story. The ending was abrupt and disappointing.

[Themattlondon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is important for any young person, especially a high school student, who is a writer or wants to write.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book by a young author

[Heather Ostendorff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall the book was a good, quick, easy read. The wife's character was a bit over the top. It also ended a bit abruptly.

[Ashley Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED the book. At first it was somewhat hard to keep up with because of the different point of views, but overall the book was totally amazing.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't get into this book.

[Adrienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

How did people not like this book? I read it several years ago and loved it. I thought the story was great. Short and simple. To the point.

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the greatest book that I have read.